For some reason, Matt Damon has admitted that he was using the antigay f-word until just recently.
The actor admitted to using the slur in a recent interview with The Sunday Times. “The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application.”
“I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. She left the table. I said, ‘Come on, that’s a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You!’”
His daughter Luciana then wrote to him about the harmful nature of the slur.
“She went to her room and wrote a very long, beautiful treatise on how that word is dangerous. I said, ‘I retire the f-slur!’ I understood,’” said Damon, who was still using the antigay slur in the year 2021.
So, this is something that he actually chose to share during an interview? I don’t understand the reason for sharing this story, except for maybe showing that your child is woke and you are not? I’m utterly dumbfounded?
Damon’s admission has been received with shock on social media, with actor, comedian, and TV presenter Billy Eichner being one of many to comment on his words.
“I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced f****t with,” the Billy on the Street star wrote.
I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced f****t with.
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) August 1, 2021
Damon’s admission came after the actor acknowledged that his quotes are picked up by news outlets more regularly now than they were when his career launched in the mid-1990s.
“Twenty years ago, the best way I can put it is that the journalist listened to the music more than the lyrics [of an interview],” he said. “Now your lyrics are getting parsed, to pull them out of context and get the best headline possible.
“Before it didn’t really matter what I said, because it didn’t make the news. But maybe this shift is a good thing. So I shut the fuck up more.”
This isn’t the first time Damon has put his foot in his mouth when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. On a disastrous press tour in 2015, he instructed LGBTQ+ actors to remain closeted.
“Whether you’re straight or gay, people shouldn’t know anything about your sexuality because that’s one of the mysteries that you should be able to play,” he told The Guardian. “I think you’re a better actor the less people know about you period.”
Sadly, now we know that since Damon has “shut the fuck up” this is why.
